


Three Hours

by forgetmequite



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Small Town, M/M, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-25 06:53:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13828845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forgetmequite/pseuds/forgetmequite
Summary: “Can I be honest with you?” Magnus asked, and then spoke on without Alec’s input, because however short their acquaintance, he knew, somehow, that he could. “I really fucking hate this town. I can’t wait to be over eighteen and graduate and justleave.”After his parents' death, Magnus is forced to move into a small town to live with an absent guardian. The only positive about the situation are some of the people he meets.





	Three Hours

**Author's Note:**

> This fic started as a vague thought experiment because I kept thinking about how none of the small town AUs I've read in fandom really meshed with my experience of having lived in one. I'm not quite sure if I captured what I wanted to, but this idea stuck with me & I wanted to try it out.

Magnus kicked a pebble. It went in the complete opposite direction than he’d meant it to.

If that wasn’t a metaphor for his whole life, Magnus didn’t know what was.

He stopped in the middle of the street. In New York, people would have been annoyed by that because at least someone would have walked into him on the crowded sidewalk. Here, in his new home of Nowheresville, Whatever, no one minded. It might have been nice except it was just because there was no one else on the sidewalk, because the town was at least 89% dead at all times.

To be fair, that was how Magnus kind of felt, too.

And a good chunk of that 11% that was left had yet to grasp the concept that he truly was here, and would be until graduation, barring death or running away. Truly understanding it was made even harder by the fact that if Magnus ever tried, he got bogged down in the swamp of what had preceded it. It was hard to unpack his current situation when for that to happen, he’d have had to unpack the fact that his mother was now dead and so was his stepfather, and somehow, Magnus was not.

But still, that series of events had landed him hundreds of miles away from Catarina, Raphael, Dot and all his familiar haunts and the people associated with them in general, under the roof of a godfather he hadn’t been aware he had until Ragnor Fell had materialised into the social worker’s office and been presented to him as a miracle.

All things considered, living with Ragnor wasn’t that bad. He was an absent guardian at best and a complete no-show at- well, not at worst, Magnus didn’t mind not seeing him for days save for quick acknowledgements when Ragnor emerged from his study to grab a bowl of cereal and disappeared again. Magnus had shelter and food in the fridge and, through a weird twist of faith, his stepfather’s (meagre) savings in his bank account that were an ample replacement for pocket money, and freedom, of a kind. If Ragnor’s house had rules, Magnus had yet to find them.

If Ragnor hadn’t lived in a godforsaken cowtown in the middle of nowhere, it would have been nearly the ideal situation, under the circumstances.

“Magnus!”

Magnus pulled himself away from his musings with considerable application of willpower. The smile on his face when he noticed who’d called for him, though, required no effort at all. He came to a halt and waited for Alec to cross the street over to him.

In general, school was hard for him. He’d always been noticeable by his appearance, even in New York, with his experiential fashion and stubborn enjoyment of make-up, but here he truly stuck out like a sore thumb at all times, and would have even if he’d let go of his personal style completely. The first time stepping into the school yard and only being greeted with white faces had felt like some kind of nightmare, created just for him.

That was, in a roundabout way, how he’d ended up befriending Alec. His first lunch break had been more of the same, and as he’d got his tray and started looking for a place to sit, he’d never been as grateful as he’d been to notice an empty seat next to a pretty girl engrossed in an enthusiastic conversation in Spanish with a boy in glasses who looked like she was the sun and he didn’t mind being blinded. Too hopeful to worry about being unwelcome, he’d walked up to the table and asked to sit. The girl – Izzy – hadn’t wasted a second to welcome him and introduce herself as well as all of her friends, soon to be Magnus’s friends, too. Most days, they were the only reason Magnus hadn’t given running away more serious thought.

Alec reached Magnus with a smile on his face. “Hi.”

“Hello, Alexander. Going to work?”

He hadn’t really noticed Alec when he’d sat down, but he’d corrected that oversight as soon as Izzy had given him names to go with faces of the other people at the table. They were siblings, Izzy told him, and Magnus barely managed to stop himself from blurting out that prettiness obviously ran in the family, despite Alec clearly being paler than his sister.

Alec didn’t talk much that day, but that didn’t stop Magnus from looking. It took him almost the whole lunch break to verify that Alec was definitely looking, too. Unlike most other looks Magnus had received during the day, it made Magnus feel good.

“No, just getting off” Alec said, and promptly blushed.

They weren’t going out, not really. They’d spent a lot of time together, with other people and without, since Magnus’s arrival a few months ago, and there was... something. In a place where men wearing make-up were automatically called gay, it would have been difficult for Magnus to even try to hide his bisexuality. All he did was correct the terminology, not that the correction probably did much good. He knew Alec was actually gay, although Alec had never said it flat out.

Whatever they had between them was kind of like that, too. They’d never really talked about it, but it felt to Magnus like maybe they had some sort of understanding nevertheless. He didn’t exactly know what it meant, but as long as Alec smiled at him more often than at anyone else (aside from his family) combined, Magnus wasn’t in a hurry to press for clarification.

In a place like this, it felt like there was nothing but time, anyway.

“Great,” Magnus said. “I was just taking a stroll through the town.”

He made an extravagantly wide gesture at the one street that encompassed the whole of the town centre. He didn’t have a car, so he was lucky Ragnor at least lived within walking distance of the town’s meagre offerings.

Alec smiled. “Mind if I join you?”

“It would be my pleasure.”

They didn’t actually do much walking, instead ending up on a bench in the area behind the town hall that someone had decided to call a park. More of a gossip than his stoic face would let on, Alec shared stories about who’d bought what at the convenience store where he regularly worked as a cashier, and listened to Magnus narrate his phone call with Catarina the previous evening, the only thing of note in Magnus’s life since the previous afternoon when he’d waved Alec and Izzy goodbye after school.

He hoped Alec wouldn’t notice his wistful tone, but of course, nothing ever went as Magnus wished it.

“You must miss them a lot,” Alec said. “Your New York friends.”

Magnus choked out a laugh, which was better than the other alternative, which was tears. “I miss New York, full stop.”

Alec nodded, looking at the ground beyond their feet. “I- I’m really bad at this stuff but it must have been hard, having to move here.”

This time, Magnus laughed properly, although without any amusement. That was one kind of understatement.

“Can I be honest with you?” he asked, and then spoke on without Alec’s input, because however short their acquaintance, he knew, somehow, that he could. “I really fucking hate this town. I can’t wait to be over eighteen and graduate and just _leave_.”

He glanced at Alec, suddenly afraid he’d stepped over some invisible line that linked Alec to the only place he’d ever lived in, but if Alec was hurt, it didn’t show on his face.

“It’s not even that people keep looking at me like I don’t belong here,” he said, even though a lot of it was, “because I don’t even want to. I never asked to be sent to a place where most people watch and believe Fox News and where a middle school play is the social event of the month and where the nearest place I could even get Ethiopian food is fucking three hours away!”

He hadn’t even realised how his voice was rising or how he was practically yelling by the end. That was where his new surroundings came in handy; there was literally no one to judge him, because no one else was out behind the town hall on a Saturday afternoon but him.

No one but Alec.

Magnus pursed his lips, as if that would stop any more words coming out of his mouth. He hadn’t meant to say any of that. He felt it, acutely, but he hadn’t really wanted Alec to hear. He felt himself shrink, barely brave enough to hazard a glance at Alec.

Alec stood up. Magnus closed his eyes; maybe it would be easier to see Alec go, or hear what he’d say as he went, if he could somehow pretend that it wasn’t the same Alec that just fifteen minutes ago had looked at Magnus like maybe he was the entire world.

“Three hours in which direction?”

His eyes blinked open, out of sheer surprise. They focused on Alec’s hand, extended towards Magnus as if to help him get up, and then to Alec, still standing right there with nothing but determination in his eyes.

Magnus’s own had to be equally full of confusion. “What?”

“You said three hours,” Alec said. “Which direction?”

He wiggled his hands, and Magnus took the hint, letting Alec pull him up from the bench. The change in perspective did nothing to help him make any sense of the situation.

“What does it matter?”

Alec faked a cough. “I can’t very well drive you there if I don’t know which way to go, can I?”

Magnus blinked. “I just said it’s three hours away.”

Alec looked at his watch as if he didn’t already know what time it was. “That still gets us back before ten. Plus, you don’t have a curfew and Mum won’t mind.”

Magnus followed him, through the park and past the town hall and into the parking lot. The sheer absurdity of the situation didn’t properly hit him until he sat on the front seat of Alec’s car, listening to Alec’s end of the conversation that verified that Ms Lightwood (Was she still, after the divorce? Magnus had called her that, once, and she’d told him to call her Maryse, and then he’d gathered later that she and her husband weren’t together anymore, but he hadn’t really thought about whether she had kept her children’s name) indeed would not mind.

“Alec,” he said as Alec reversed out of the parking spot, “are you really doing this?”

Alec turned his head to check there were no cars coming up on the road, and his eyes fell on Magnus.

“Do you not want to?” he asked, in all seriousness, as if that was the issue.

Magnus watched him, looking for a weak spot in Alec’s resolute demeanour, but he found none. Alec really did mean to throw his free afternoon and evening into the wind just to sit in a car with Magnus because Magnus missed his favourite take-out.

“I want to,” he said. That had never been in doubt. He was always up for anything to get away, or to spend time with Alec. Combining the two was almost too good to be true. “I just- You don’t have to.”

Alec stared at him. “I want to.”

And with that, he turned to the right and started driving.

Magnus didn’t say anything until they were on the highway.

“I wasn’t trying to-“ He swallowed. “This isn’t a literal guilt trip, is it?”

Magnus could see Alec frown a little, but when Alec turned to briefly look at him, he was smiling.

“No,” Alec said, and somehow, Magnus believed him. “Listen, I- I can’t do anything about the Fox News and I’m not really a social event person, but I have a car and free time and if that can make your day better, I’m all for it.”

Magnus fiddled with the cuffs of his shirt. “I didn’t mean to throw all that stuff at you. I’m sorry.”

He wasn’t really sorry for thinking it, but he couldn’t help feeling like it would affect how Alec saw him, and Magnus would be sorry to see their easy undefined dynamic change, like this.

“Don’t be,” Alec said. “I can’t even begin to understand what you’re going through, with- Everything. And it’s probably selfish because you obviously don’t want to be here, but meeting you is the best thing that ever happened to me, so... I’d like to- I’d like to be there for you. Whatever way I can.”

Magnus had no response to that, and although Alec didn’t seem to particularly be looking for one, the silence still felt awkward. He began fiddling with the radio, looking for a good channel, but there really wasn’t one.

“Why Ethiopian?” Alec asked as Magnus was about to give up.

Magnus sat back, abandoning the radio. “There’s a really great Ethiopian place where I live-d. My friends and I used to go there a lot. It was really nice.” He laughed. “Plus, I just miss having more than one take-out place to choose from.”

He could see Alec bite back a smile. “You get used to it.”

“I don’t want to.”

There was another silence, but this one felt more comfortable. Magnus broke it, anyway. It was just nice talking to Alec, and being on an impromptu road trip didn’t change that.

“Do you even like Ethiopian food?”

“Never had it.” Alec glanced at his watch. “I’ll tell you in a few hours.”

Magnus’s face was twisting into shocked surprise before he even realised it was doing that. It made sense, he supposed.

Still, he couldn’t help teasing, “What, you don’t usually drive hours just to go out to dinner?”

Alec took his eyes off the car ahead of them just long enough to give Magnus a very bright smile. “I’m making an exception for you.”

Magnus settled more comfortably on the seat. They still had a long way to drive, and he was intent on enjoying it.

 

Once they took an exit off the highway, Magnus pulled out his phone and began giving Alec driving instructions. They found the restaurant without major incident. When he’d been googling out of sheer boredom, Magnus hadn’t really paid any attention to the quality of the place, just the location. It was a nice little restaurant, though, mostly full with what was already the dinner crowd, and the food was delicious.

It didn’t actually make Magnus feel like he was at home again, but he hadn’t been foolish enough to hope for that.

Alec wasn’t anything like Cat or Raphael or Dot either, obviously, but he was Alec. Magnus didn’t wish for him to be anyone else.

Magnus won the eventual tug-of-war over the bill, narrowly refraining from commenting how much it felt like an actual, proper date. Even if it would be his first date where the travel took a longer time than the actual date activity.

The drive back started off with a silence, both of them too full to speak.

Eventually, though, Magnus broke it.

“Thank you.”

Alec’s eyes were focused on the traffic, but Magnus could still see his smile in the dimming light of the evening.

“It was my pleasure, really. Hanging out with you always is.”

The words brought back what Alec had said earlier, and for a while, Magnus sat quietly, unsure of whether he wanted to bring it up. He might put up a good front of feeling at ease and confident, but moments like these exposed it for the act that it was. Maybe someday, when he’d be older, it would be more real, but right then, it was all he could do to try and hide how terrified he felt.

“Sometimes,” he said quickly, before his courage would desert him again, “I think about what it would be like if I’d never moved here, and everything else about it is great but then I wouldn’t have met you.”

Alec’s head turned like whiplash to look at him, and Magnus could just register the look of astonishment before Alec had to refocus on the traffic again.

“If you had to get your life uprooted and live somewhere you hate,” Alec said, eyes firmly on the road, “I’m glad that it’s here and not somewhere else.”

Magnus smiled, feeling a little less terrified. “Me too.”

 

It was five to ten when Alec parked in front of Ragnor’s house.

“I said we’d be back before ten.”

Magnus laughed. That had been the least of his worries.

But he had more important things to say than needle Alec about that. “I had a really great time tonight.”

Alec smiled as if it was the greatest compliment he could ever receive. “Me too. If you ever want to do it again, you know where to find me.”

Magnus looked down, suddenly feeling coy. “Next time, I’m paying for petrol.”

“You paid for the food,” Alec said, as if that settled it.

Magnus raised an eyebrow, and it just slipped. He’d been thinking about it for most of the evening, anyway. “You’re a bossy date, Alec Lightwood.”

They both realised at the same time what he’d said, and for a second Magnus was almost terrified again, but the small, sweet smile that appeared on Alec’s lips banished the feeling again.

“And yet you already promised there’d be a next time.”

Magnus moved to open the car door, but really, he didn’t want to leave Alec yet.

“And I intend to keep that promise,” he said, trying unsuccessfully to make his voice light. “What are you doing tomorrow?”

Alec’s gaze dropped, for a second, to Magnus’s lips. “Homework. And after that, whatever you have in mind.”

Magnus knew his smile was too bright, too eager to look confident, but he couldn’t mind, not with Alec looking at him like that.

“It’s a plan.”

“It’s a date,” Alec corrected, looking like his words surprised himself, too.

It did not really clarify much about what they were, but Magnus wasn’t worried about that. They had time for that, starting with a date tomorrow and no end in sight.

He was still going to leave this whole town in the dust as soon as he could. But, Magnus thought as he watched Alec’s car disappear from sight, he would be more than glad to take some pieces with him as he went.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm also on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/forgetmequite)!


End file.
